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Wenger: 'We feel stronger in every game'

On Robin van Persie's form...He is back in form. He was already fit and sharp last week and overall we had a good team performance so he could finish a hat-trick. On not taking first-half chances...The players were a bit frustrated because we did not take our chances but I felt in the first half we played outstanding football. We feel stronger and stronger in every single game. It is interesting the chance we have in front of us because we have an interesting game, the way we play is for me fantastic to watch. Let's just keep going.

On his attacking options...Of course it is important to have Robin at this level but we have plenty of offensive players. First of all let's hope we can keep him fit until the end of the season. It is down to us to use him in the right proportion of the games we play.

On rotating the squad for Ipswich...We will rotate, we have no choice. We play nine games in January, it's the most we have ever played. When you look at the fixtures we had in December it means we need to rotate from game to game. But we have fantastic players on the bench and it is very important because we cannot always play with the same XI.

On telling Van Persie when he will be rested...He handles it alright. He is intelligent but of course he wants to play. He was at Leeds on the bench, he came on and scored.

On his penalty takers...[Van Persie has] always [been the No 1 penalty taker]. What happened today will not change my mind. I find it's difficult to approve when the ball goes into the stand on the penalty, no matter how tolerant you are! I would have loved the ball to go in the net.On keeping so many clean sheets...We look more and more stable and defensively we were questioned a lot on that front. Maybe the fact you [reporters] ask me in every press conference 'do I buy a defender?' it keeps our defenders on their toes.

On the prospect of buying a defender...I am open-minded on it and if the right opportunity turns up we will take it. We are not desperate, we have Vermaelen who can still play a big part in the end of the season and we have Squillaci who comes back maybe next Sunday. Song can play at the back too.

On finding the right player...It is not two weeks to make your mind up, it is two weeks to find the right players. It is not just because you want to buy that you find exactly what you need. I think that if you look at the defenders who play the moment - we have Djourou and Koscielny, and Vermaelen who played before - we have always found the right players. Trust us - if the opportunity is there we will take it, if it's not we will play with the players we have, and I will not use that as an excuse if we don't win trophies.

On whether it is worth spending extra this time...The question makes sense but practically it doesn't work like that. It is not because you have money available that you just find the player available, no? We have the needed money to spend if we want but the players you would want are not necessarily available. At the moment I feel that, unless we have a big problem at the centre back, we can deal with the situation.On Cesc Fabregas' performance...I think he was outstanding. At the end of the game he was frustrated because he didn't score but for me the ball he gave for the second goal was absolutely amazing. The second goal I could watch that and watch it and watch it again because it's just pure class from the pass to the finish.

Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source

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